This was such a situation as the Outlaws loved. They had by this time quite lost sight of what they were rescuing and why they were rescuing it. The thrill of the rescue itself filled their entire horizon....
They went round to the side gate where they crouched in the bushes watching the redoubtable William as he crept Indian fashion with elaborate “registration” of cunning and secrecy across a small lawn up to a small open window. Breathlessly they watched him hoist himself up and swing his legs over the window sill. They saw his freckled face still wearing its frown of determination as he disappeared inside the room.
He had meant to make his way through the room to the hall where he hoped to find the black coat hanging and to be able to abstract it without interference and return at once to his waiting comrades. But things are seldom as simple as we hope they are going to be. No sooner had he found himself in the room than he heard voices approaching the door and with admirable presence of mind dived beneath the round table in the middle of the room, whose cloth just—but only just—concealed him from view.
The lady whom the Outlaws had followed down the road—now divested of the fateful black coat—entered the room followed by another gayer and more highly-coloured lady.
“A black coat, did you say?” said the first lady.
William, beneath the table, pricked up his ears.
“Yes, if you can, dear,” said the highly-coloured lady, “if you’d be so good, dear. I only want it for to-morrow for the funeral. I think I told you, didn’t I, dear? A removed cousin whom I hardly knew—a very removed cousin—but they’ve invited me and one likes to show oneself appreciative of these little attentions—not that I think he’ll have left me a penny in his will and it certainly isn’t worth while buying black but I have a black dress and if you wouldn’t mind lending me a black coat.”
“Certainly,” said the first lady. “I can let you have one with pleasure. It’s in the hall. It’s one I’ve only just bought....”
William ground his teeth.... So it was in the hall! If he’d only been a few minutes earlier....
They went into the hall and William gathered that the black coat was being displayed.